Neal has 800 more acres in Parrish

Neal Communities affiliates have bought more than 800 acres of land in Parrish, where -- in a rare move -- the developer plans to roll out a massive community with a national builder as a partner.

The deals come as Neal has been buying property for new communities throughout Southwest Florida to meet demand for new homes that is unmatched in the Lakewood Ranch-based builder's history.

Parrish has become an especially hot spot for new home building activity in recent months, because of abundant available land, combined with relatively low land prices when compared with other areas of the region.

Neal snapped up a total of 812 acres from CNB REI Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of City National Bank of Florida, through two purchases in late April, for $8 million, records show.

The agricultural tracts, which sit west of U.S. 301 and north of Moccasin Wallow Road, will require county rezoning to build homes on them, court records show.

The deals will give Neal additional land to continue its brisk year for sales, which in April alone resulted in 73 new home buyers. Through the first four months of 2013, the company is on pace for its best year of sales ever.

The Parrish land will be developed by Neal for a national homebuilder, similar to the arrangement Neal made with Lennar Corp. in Venice's Stoneybrook community. But that national builder, or a timetable for development, has yet to be finalized.

"It's still so early in the process," said Leisa Weintraub, vice president of marketing for Neal Communities. "But we plan to use 596 acres to build single-family homes."

Neal this week also broke ground on its newest neighborhood, dubbed Eagle Trace, just south of State Road 64 near Lakewood Ranch in East Manatee County.

The community is expected to open for sales in November.

Also in Parrish, Neal is moving forward with a new, 732-home subdivision on land it bought more than six years ago. Work on the first 320 units in the Silverleaf community is to begin within three months, building records show.